It’s been three days now and I think we’ve only really, just recovered from what was a truly mammoth voyage into the competitive world of Best Scotch Egg. What started out as a cheeky ‘anything you can do I can do better’ conversation over twitter, rapidly turned into a list of truly outstanding pubs and restaurants all intent on winning the prize for something they all knew they could do well, but, the question was, who could do it just that little bit better? Victory came in the form of round, runny, yummy perfection from The Devonshire Arms in Chiswick who scored 83 points out of 100 for their Haggis and Burford Brown Recipe. Joint second runners up were The Old Dairy,Stroud Green and The Bull and Last, Highgate who were hot on their heals with 79 points.

With 33 entrants on Tuesday night, the pub was buzzing as crowds gathered in the restaurant to watch over the pass as the competition began. The judges, neatly tucked away out of earshot and view of the kitchen took to their seats, a mixture of both excitement and definite apprehension on their faces.

And so we got started… chefs galore turned up to the kitchen at their allotted slot times, eagerly awaiting their 15 minutes in the kitchen. Some more relaxed than others, we made our way through three hours of celebration for the genius creation that is simply egg, meat and breadcrumbs. There were probes flying about, stop clocks and alarms, there was heat, there was sweat, there was almost tears!

We had ritual songs being sung, we had customized t-shirts, there were shouts and there were cheers. But what emerged out of fryers and ovens, no one could turn down. Overwhelmed waitresses launched themselves egg after egg into the restaurant to give out these works of art to the crowds and get opinions flowing, a separate competition developing for which one of them could try and get the furthest through the masses without having to return to the kitchen with an empty board.

Huge thanks have to go out to our judges Chris Pople, MiMi Aye, Mat Follas, and self confessed King of Scotch Eggs David Constable (who we hope still wishes to maintain that title after being force fed almost seven in one sitting) for their expert opinions. They were also joined by special guest judge Eric Lanlard of CakeBoy fame and whose hobbies are soon to include trips to space, who kindly stepped in and saved the day at the last minute to fill the fifth spot on the panel. Not knowing who’s egg was who’s they endeavoured to judge on appearance, smell, texture and taste, 20 being the maximum points each judge could give an egg (5 for each category). At about 11pm we had a result. Tallying up the points to give each competitor a score out of 100, Osh made his way up to the judges table to announce a winner. The Devonshire’s Egg was truly outstanding and with four out of the five judges ranking it top, they deservedly lifted the cup.Top points for best non retail entry went to Friday Food Club and David crowned The Hind’s Head, Bray as the winners of his own award for eggcellence. Commentary and laughs from Douglas Blyde on the mic all evening doing interviews and egging on the judges topped off a great night and very successful event. A massive congratulations to everyone who took part, ate, drank and went into the bar afterwards to be merry amongst a few local irish musicians.About The Ship, Wandsworth:On the banks of the Thames by Wandsworth Bridge, The Ship has been supplying fine ales, wines and food to its surrounding residents since 1786 when it was founded as a Thameside Waterman’s Inn.

Tandem Marketing was tasked to produce a video for the Dorset Seafood Festival 2011 which communicated all elements of this increasingly popular event. Using testimonials from stall holders, sponsors, participating celebrity chefs and visitors the video clearly demonstrates the success of the event for all involved.

Mat FollasI will be watching Masterchef this year, I don't always watch the celeb or professionals but always the amateur series

Why ?

... as a fan of the program I've always enjoyed the honesty of the judges, John and Gregg, the aspirations of the contestants, the ones who flourish and the ones who's pomposity is burst with a truly awful dish. John and Gregg are not your friends who, at every dinner party, praise you for your 'wonderful cooking', they're direct and honest and more than a little painful at times. The 'journey' is a much copied format now but its always great to watch the huge leaps the semi-finalists take as they progress and get opportunities to learn.

... as a previous contestant and winner I have a huge debt and can share the highs and lows from a privileged perspective. I know a lot of the team behind the cameras, the directors and the brilliant and committed Series Editors Karen and David. I know the program is honest to its core, John and Gregg, the production and the contestants are kept at arms length from each other. I'm sure the production would have preferred a female finalist in the last couple of years but the judges are kept separate from influence and, I believe, only ever judge on the food placed in front of them.

I know now Gregg and I are friends that I wasn't his favourite to win my series until the final day although I had no inkling when I was contestant which way either of them felt.... finally as a restaurateur there are some wonderful new ideas and dishes, its great to see other kitchens (we cooks lead pretty insular lives)

The format changes this year, I don't know how similar to the Aussie or NZ Masterchef it will be but I do know the production team is basically the same as the previous series. I know they're a bit nervous of the new, more glamorous perhaps, format and studio losing the audience who like the grittiness of the original series but am confident there will be the underlying honesty kept which will ensure the series will continue as a success.

So good luck to the program, more importantly I wish the last few luck as they are now committed to cooking for the next few years, I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have. I look forward to hopefully meeting you soon.

Series 7 Masterchef starts on BBC1 at 9pm this Wednesday 16 February (I might be making a brief appearance on the 24th February)

It's the morning after the night before and my husband, his brother, his brother's girlfriend and I ooze slowly down from the comfort of the lovely apartment and crumple into a little heap at the bottom of the stairs.

The brother-in-law and girlfriend are a good bit younger than the husband and me and, thoroughly perked up, they excitedly flick through their mini Food for Free foraging handbook they've brought along.

Theo gives us a short talk about what to expect and some house rules ("No eating anything unless we say it's okay") and then we're off.

Our first stop is rather unexpectedly a little lane just off the Square where the Wild Garlic is located.

Plants which look like weeds to me and which I see so often I don't "see" them any more turn out to be ground elder, jack-by-the-hedge and hogweed.

Down another lane we go, and there's walnuts and blackberries, cobnuts and nettles.

Every discovery comes with a story from Theo and some culinary tips from Mat, and we make notes and take pictures and begin to think "Ray Mears has nothing on me".

Now it's time to go further afield and we hop into a minibus driven by Mat himself and end up in a sun-dappled copse, where we traipse about merrily spotting different types of mushrooms.Picking them the proper way (slice and not uproot so as not to kill), we offer them up to Theo for identification in hushed tones as if bearing tributes to a mighty potentate.

We punch the air when we come up with an edible one and sigh when we come across a dud.

We find russolas and chanterelles and ceps and amethyst deceivers, different shapes, different colours, every one fascinating.

It's all fantastic fun and we're genuinely sorry when we're told it's time for a mid-morning break and driven back to the Wild Garlic.

The sorrow doesn't last though as, back at the ranch, there are glorious brownies, fresh strawberries and more tea and coffee on offer.

Refreshed, it's back in the bus for a journey to another beautiful part of the countryside - rolling hills, sheep and a fort on Eggardon Hill.

Mat FollasKai We Care - popup restaurant for NZ quakeTwitter is an amazing and powerful tool for our times. I've seen statements like this said a number of times but hadn't realised till Monday night how true this can be. One single tweet from me and approx 300 replies came flooding in within a few minutes. A short conversation with Dave Ahern aka @corkgourmetguy, a blogger and fellow 'mature' newby chef … went along the lines of (and I'm paraphrasing):

D You doing anything for NZ Earthquake ?

M Running an auction for dinner/overnight, not sure what else to do

D Popup restaurant ?

M Too far from London and not enough time to handle as much as I want to, keep asking if anyone is so I can help out

D I run events for a living (or did), how about it? We could do a 30 cover dinner with our contacts alone

What a response ! Literally hundreds of people offered their help immediately and lots more offering services and goodies. Thank you all so much … I can't say that enough. So its starting to take shapeKai we care Kai = Māori for food ... the name is a pun on Kiwi care ... @KaiWeCare is the twitter accountwebsite http://kaiwecare.weebly.com/email Mailto:KaiWeCare@gmail.com

This is now somewhat bigger than envisiged (that's English understatement for you).We have a whole bunch of seriously good chefs including Michelin starred on board to run a course each. Some you might know and some will be better known to chefs and their local communities. It will be great to get a few TV faces on board but just as fun for us to experience some of the lesser well known but exceptional chefs we have in the UK.

For example we will have the lovely Lisa Faulkner (Celeb Masterchef winner) and the less well known Michelin starred Russell Brown from Sienna down here in Dorset. There's a few from Masterchef and The Restaurant on board and a whole bunch of exceptional chefs, more to come. Harass your favourite chefs to offer to help, its a Monday so most of them will be available ! The best chefs we can get will make this an amazing event and help with the right ticket and auction prices … this is a fundraiser first and foremost, but we all want it to be an evening to be remembered too. Lots of wine offers, great ! I'm thinking a wine company per course to sponser and a few special bottles for the Auction. Auction prizes: a number of meals, training courses and wines … please keep them coming! Bloggers and twitters I need your help to sell tickets, We will need to source ingredients free or at cost and lots and lots of publicity so we can maximise ticket sales and auction values. I know you'll help and please bear with us as the above is all the planning we've been able to do so far.ImportantlyDate: 4 April 2011 - put this in your diary now please !(as a nice antidote to Mothers day it has been said ...)Location: London (several sites probable/possible at the moment, looking for size, kitchen and locations, hopefully finalize asap but please do suggest more)Tickets: £ to be agreed (suggestions?)Sale method: Ebay or direct from the email account Numbers: 100 planned Who's doing what ? In rough terms I'm organising the chefs, Dave the location and auction and John running the twitter and email accounts and day to day … conveniently he has arranged to be unemployed while we're organising the event. Please retweet/email/blog/copy this letter and let your friends and family know. More to come soon, Mat